Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of electronic communication content such as voice, data, and so on. While electronic forms of communication (e.g., email, text messages, voicemail, phone calls) have enabled people to conveniently contact and interact with others, the richness of electronic communications falls short of direct, face-to-face communication.
Electronic communications, by themselves, do not generally convey the full emotional state of the sending party. For example, research suggests that 7% of emotional context in a given message is conveyed by the words (e.g., text in an electronic communications). Another 38% of the emotional context is conveyed vocally by the tone of the voice. The final 55% is expressed using non-verbal communication, such as facial expression and other body gestures. (See generally Mehrabian, Albert; Ferris, Susan R. (1967). “Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels”. Journal of Consulting Psychology 31 (3): 248-252).
With regard to traditional electronic communications, the emotional context or emotional state of the sending party may be misinterpreted by the receiving party. As a result, electronic communications may not provide the level of richness that face-to-face communications provide.